Year: 2014

AFC U-19 Championship: Group A preview

the-afc,com

Yangon: Myanmar coach Gerd Zeise called on home fans to fill Thuwunna Youth Training Centre Stadium in Yangon and to make the most of the country hosting this year’s AFC U-19 Championship ahead of their Group A opener against Yemen on Thursday.

 

Hosts of the AFC U-19 Championship for the first time, Myanmar have not played in the finals of the tournament since 1976 when they competed as Burma. But their historical pedigree in the competition is strong, winning the tournament seven times between 1961 and 1970.

Yangon, the country’s most populous city, will play host to all of the home nation’s games if they are to lift the trophy in a tournament that also offers four qualification berths for the FIFA U-20 World Cup, to be held in New Zealand next year.

And home advantage is something that Myanmar’s German coach is very much counting on to lift his side to new heights.

“I hope the stadium is full, in Vietnam [for the AFF U-19 Championship last month] we played against 40,000 fans from Hanoi, if we have 30,000 here, of course it will be an advantage,” said Zeise (pictured).

“We can promise the Myanmar spectators they will see good football.”

The promise of Group A providing an exciting spectacle was repeated by Iran coach Ali Doustimehr with his team kicking off the tournament in Thursday’s earlier game in Group A against Thailand.

“We are sure to have some great matches in a very exciting group with all the teams boasting coaches who are very experienced at this tasking level of football,” said Doustimehr, who saw his side crash out in the quarter-finals of the 2012 edition.

“We began preparing for this tournament a year ago and have practiced in three or four tournaments over that period in the hope of bettering our result from last time.”

Opposite number Sasom Pobprasert, though, said that Thailand’s preparations for the tournament had not run so smoothly.

“We have had many problems, many players have returned to their clubs, so we were not allowed to hold a camp, our camp was only one week long,” said Thailand coach Sasom.

“Myanmar has had four years to prepare; Thailand, only four months.”

To compound matters, Sasom will be without the pacey Santipharp Channgom for his side’s opener due to injury, but he is hopeful that the forward will return in time for the crucial tie Matchday Two tie versus Myanmar on Saturday.

Finally, Yemen round out the group and will provide the opposition for the hosts in their opening game.

And the Gulf Nation are hoping for an improvement on their last visit to the finals in the 2010 competition, where they were eliminated in the group stage.

“This is a strong group but we are hopeful of reaching the knockout stages,” said Yemen coach Ahmed Qasem.

“This is the fourth time we have played this tournament; I hope that we can achieve something this time.”

Team Melli will play Benfica Reserves !

Iran’s Team Melli will be playing a friendly match against the reserve team of Benfica in preparation for the AFC Asian Cup! The match will be played at 10:30 in the morning next Tuesday 14th October 2014.

Team Melli squad is currently in Carlos Queiroz homeland and so far has managed to arrange two matches only, one of which would have been a real test for Team Melli which has lost valuable preparation time for the upcoming premiere Asian Competition. Due to procrastinating of Queiroz and Kaffashian on signing a contract extension, Team Melli had no coach or a program until a few weeks ago.

The match against full strength Benfica, would have been a strong duel to test Queiroz’s much favored defensive system. However, since the famous Portuguese club and three times European Cup holder is involved in the Champions League and the National Team of Portugal is busy with the European Cup qualifiers, Benfica coach Jorge Jesus has preferred to field the reserve team giving his main players enough rest for the tough schedule ahead.
Benfica will be meeting Sporting Covilhã in the Portuguese cup on 18th October.

On the other hand, Iran opponents in the group have been having a busy schedule from the summer as UAE has played strong oppositions like Paraguay , Lithuania, Norway, Georgia & Armenia while Qatar played the likes of Uzbekistan, Peru, Morocco, Indonesia and Macedonia.

It is rumored that a friendly match against Palestine is on the cards next for Team Melli, but it has yet to be finalized.

 

24 players short-listed for Team Melli

The shortlist of 24 players making it to Portugal has been announced by FFIRI after the last round of the Persian Gulf League matches have been completed. The team will be flying to Lisbon tonight (Saturday 4th Oct) where two tests matches are arranged against Portuguese clubs Estoril and Benfica. Team Melli will be utilizing the FIFA days for this camp. 

The selection of the players, as always, raised a few questions on who selected the team? Mehdi Rahmati inclusion in the list did not last long as expected, while there is no place for one of the stars of the league, Mohammadreza Khalatbary. While khalatbaruy was showing his worth in the match against Persepolis on Friday with a splendid assist to Mehdi Sharifi to score a last minute winner, neither of the two made the 24 players list of Queiroz.

Vahid Ameeri - Naft Tehran
Vahid Ameeri – Naft Tehran

However, by some divine rights, Mehrdad Pooladi who has not kicked a ball in official competitions since the last match in the FIFA World Cup and currently has no club after he failed to sign with a Qatari team, is included in this squad!

Ahmad Abdullahzadeh Foolad Khuzestan
Ahmad Abdullahzadeh Foolad Khuzestan

There is also a question mark on the selection of Karim Ansarifard , a player who has not featured in many of Osasuna matches this season and sometimes he is not even included in the bench , yet he is selected for Team Melli ahead of many capable active playing forwards.

On a positive note, the list includes several rookies mostly from Naft Tehran and Foolad Khuzestan clubs. Ahmadzadeh , Rafei . Ameeri, Pouraliganji and Ghafoori are players that have been instrumental in their teams this season and have been duly selected for the squad. The old guards who have failed to impress with Team Melli in the FIFA World Cup are still there with the exception of Baithashour and Davari who are not able to join due to club or other commitments.

The biggest surprise must be the absence of any players from one of the two most popular teams in Iran, Persepolis. The club has been suffering a dreadful form and sacked coach Daei lately. That is the first time such non-inclusion of a Persepolis players has occurred. On the other hand no players from the league leaders Tractorsazi have been included. This raises many questions about the selections and if they are based on current form and performance or is it player’s reputation or other factors..

 

Goalkeepers

Alireza  HAGHIGHI (Penafiel), Alireza  BIRANVAND (Naft Tehran), Mohsen FROUZAN (Esteghlal)

 

Defender

Mehrdad POOLADI (No Club), Hashim BEIGZADEH (Esteghlal), ,Jalal HOSSEINI (Al Ahli QAT) , Pejman MONTAZERI (Umm Salal SC  QAT), Morteza POURALIGANJI (Naft Tehran),  AmirHossein SADEGHI (Esteghlal) , Vourya GHAFFORI (Sepahan)

MIDFIELD

Andranik TEYMOURIAN (Esteghlal), Javad NEKOUNAM (Osasuna ESP), Ahmad ABDULLAZADEH (Foolad Khuzestan), Omid EBRAHIMI (Esteghlal),, Ehsan HAJSAFY(Sepahan), Ashkan DEJAGAH (Al Arabi QAT),  Soroush RAFEI (Foolad Khuzestan), Masoud SHOJAEI (Al Shahaniya QAT),  Khosrow HEYDARI (Esteghlal).

 

FORWARDS

Reza GHOOCHANNEJAD (Al Kuwat SC KWI), Sardar AZMOUN (Rubin Kazan RUS), Karim ANSARIFARD  (Osasuna ESP), Vahid AMEERI (Naft Tehran) , AliReza JAHANBAKHSH (NEC Nijmegen NED)

Portugal camp list announced

FFIRI announced the initial list of 26 players who are nominated to attend the Team Melli training camp in Portugal. The final list will be announced by Thursday.

Team Melli will be flying to Portugal on 4th October. The camp will be based in the capital Lisbon.

Two games have been arranged during this camp. On Friday 10th October Estoril will be Team Melli opponents while on Tuesday 22nd , Team Melli will face Benfica in its second test match.

The list includes Seyed Mehdi Rahmati who was blacklisted by Queiroz, with 7 goalkeepers on the list, which is a first in Team Melli’s squad lists, it remains to be seen if Rahmati is shortlisted for the next phase of Team Melli training. Daniel Davari has shown little interest in joining the squad and prefers to stay home for family reasons.

There is no place for Peyam Sadeghi because of his suspension, however, Hossein Mahini who is officially suspended by the League commission and the Military authority is included in the list !

Mehrdad Pooladi who is out of contract and has no club to train with , is named in the squad. Pooladi’s last competitive match was against Bosnia on 25th June 2014. He has not been playing or training for a league team for 3 months now, but his inclusion in the list is nothing too strange as Mehrdad Pooladi was once named in the squad while he was walking on crutches!

There are two players who are mentioned as being part of the list , but not announced by the FFIRI.

GOALKEEPERS

Rahman AHMADI, Alireza  HAGHIGHI,Sousha MAKANI, Alireza  BIRANVAND, Daniel DAVARI, Mohsen FROUZAN , Mehdi RAHMATI

DEFENDERS

Mehrdad POOLADI, Hashim BEIGZADEH,Jalal HOSSEINI, Pejman MONTAZERI,Ehsan HAJSAFY, Khosrow HEYDARI, Javad NEKOUNAM, AliReza JAHANBAKHSH, Soja’a KHALILZADEH, Ahmad ALE NEMEH, Steven BEITASHOUR, Mehrdad JAMAATI, Morteza POURALIGANJI, Ahmad ABDULLAZADEH, Hossein AmirHossein  MAHINI,SADEGHI,.

 

MIDFIELD

Yaghoub KARIMI,Andranik TEYMOURIAN, Omid EBRAHIMI, Ashkan DEJAGAH,
Reza HAGHIGHI SHANDIZ, Soroush RAFEI , SHOJAEI, Masoud, Ghassim HADDADIFAR, MohamadReza KHALATBARY, Saman NARIMANJAHAN

FORWARDS

Reza GHOOCHANNEJAD, Sardar AZMOUN, Karim ANSARIFARD, Mehdi SHARIFI

Team Melli U19 last hope for glory in 2014

Iran Youth team (Team Melli U19) will be competing in the AFC U-19 championship in Myanmar in October.

The team coached by the veteran youth teams coach , Ali Doustimehr , is the last chance for Iran to grab an honor in Asian tournaments after the disappointing failures of all the participating teams in AFC competition to gain any titles or qualify for World Championship. 4 teams from this championship in Yangon , Myanmar will qualify for the FIFA U-19 championship in New Zealand next year.

Ali Doustimehr
Ali Doustimehr

The competition will be a tough test for Iran as they are facing the host nation Myanmar and the strong Thai team. Doustimehr will have Mehdi Mahdavikia in a consulting role alongside him in Myanmar. The team seems to be well prepared and despite the cancellation of a proposed camp , the alternative plans world well according to the coach and Mahdavikia.

Saeid Ezzatollahei  who is currently playing for Atletico Madrid “B” team is included in the list , however , his availability for the competition is dependent on the club agreeing to release him.)

 

Competing Teams

Group A : MYANMAR, IRAN, THAILAND & YEMEN
Group B : UZBEKISTAN, AUSTRALIA, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES & INDONESIA
Group C : KOREA REPUBLIC, JAPAN ,CHINA P.R. & VIETNAM
Group D : IRAQ, DPR KOREA,QATAR & OMAN

 

 

Group A Matches

Tehran Times (GMT +3:30)

Date
Time
Copmpetetion
Group
Home Team
Away Team
Venue
09-Oct-2014 12:30 AFC U19 Championship 2014 Group A Iran U19 Thailand U19 Youth Training Centre, Yangon
11-Oct-2014 12:30 AFC U19 Championship 2014 Group A Iran U19 Yemen U19 Youth Training Centre, Yangon
13-Oct-2014 15:30 AFC U19 Championship 2014 Group A Myanmar U19 Iran U19 Youth Training Centre, Yangon

Iran U19 23 players list

Maysam Joudaki (Central)

Hussain Mehraban , MohammadReza Bazaj (Khorasan Razavi)

Ali Hazami, Komeil Haghzadeh, Sasan Jaffari-kia (Khuzestan)

Payam Niazmand, Ahmad Gohari, Ali Gholizadeh, Seyed Majid Hosseini, Mahan Rahmani, Siavash Haghnazri (Tehran)

Mohsen Aghaye, Mehdi Amini, Armin Sohrabian, Mohammad Roshandel , Milad Sarlak (Isfahan)

Amir Muhammad Mazloom, Sadegh Moharrami (Gilan)

Saeid Ezzatollahei  (Atletico Madrid)

Saeid Aghaye, Youssef Seyyedi (East Azerbaijan)

Ali Fathian (Fars)

FFIRI disciplinary committee ruling on the Military Service.

Ismael Hassanzadeh , head of the Disciplinary Committee of the FFIRI has confirmed that the federation will deal firmly with any cases of fake Release Certificates from Military Service.

In a recent statement , Hassanzadeh said “We are awaiting the report from the League commission about those cases. Any player who is found to be in violation of the military service regulations or holding a fake certificate will be immediately suspended form playing league football.”

A recent statement  by Persepolis management have implied that Hossein Mahini, who is one of the players suspended by the federation due to violations of Military Service rules, will be soon be allowed to play for Persepolis until his case is heard by the authorities. This statement triggered fears amongst other clubs that Persepolis is wielding its power and influences to get their player off the hook while other clubs will be denied such privileges and remain suspended.

Ismael Hassanzadeh also refuted any suggestions that Payam Sadeghian will be pardoned putting an end to another widely circulated news that the suspended player is about to play for his club, Persepolis  and join Team Melli training camp in Portugal.

TV broadcast rights fail to produce agreement. FFIRI threatens to ban TV Cameras.

The negotiations between the Football federation FFIRI and IRIB on the subject  respect of broadcast rights of football matches have failed.

The two sides have been conducting a series of meeting in a hope of coming up with an amicable solution. However , the last meeting ended in failure as the two side did not agree on a fee . The broadcast of football matches on TV hangs on a balance. The disagreements seem to be quite big as a wide gap exists between the figures provided by each side for the broadcast right.

Ali Kaffashian , who was counting on the millions of dollars from TV broadcast to support his ailing federation , expressed his deep disappointment for the failure of the negotiations. He accused the IRIB of ignoring football rights and being uncooperative.

 IRIB figure for broadcasting the Football League matches is around 22 Billion toman , which the FFIRI is rejecting as being too low.   Kaffashian said that IRIB revenue from advertising during football matches is worth at least 4 times their proposed figure.

Asked by ISNA if this is the end of the long negotiations between the two parties, Kaffashian confirmed that there will be no more negotiation as IRIBI is steadfastly standing behind their original figure. “We will start a motion to prevent IRIB from broadcasting our league matches. The executive committee of the federation will meet soon and takes the appropriate action”

Asked if such motion has the support of the government, Kaffashian confirmed that the Ministry of youth and sport is supporting the federation in its demands. However, he admitted that other organs might have something to say about the issue of preventing the cameras from entering the stadia!.

On the other hand, IRIB rejected Kaffashian’s claims and accusations.

Majeed Zein-ul Abedin , head of Shabakeh 3 and chairman of development and strategy committee of IRIB , said in statement  “IRIB does not deal with threats and intimidation” referring to Kaffashian’s threat of banning the TV cameras.

“We have studied the market, checked our advertising revenue , conducted our due diligence and came up with the proposed figure we offered the football federation. We are committed to sports and football broadcasting and promotion. We are a government organization and both of our revenues and expenditures are under scrutiny and auditing as it is public money. We are held accountable for it.”

Zein-ul Abedin added “We have been buying TV broadest right for Iran for many years and are experienced in this field. We know the values of each competition. What we offered football is the best deal that we can do according to our research and studies not just on impulses or wishes. We should also remind the football federation that we are committed to other sports as well. There are many sport federations that have honored this country and we have a national obligation to broadcast their activities. None of them have asked for payment as football does.”

That last statement is probably a hint against the football federation which has failed to win any titles or glories for Iran, while sports such as Volleyball , basketball and handball of the country are becoming globally recognized.

List of Portugal camp players revealed.

The list of players considered for the Team Melli training camp in Portugal has been unofficially revealed.

The list was sent to the embassy of Portugal for Visa application , and someone has got hold of the list and distributed it.

Esteghlal had the lion share of players included with 7 followed by Sepahan Esfahan with 4. Persepolis has two players only however , the names of another two Hossein Mahini and Payam Sadeghian is also included despite restrictions and bans imposed on them!.

The legionnaires players will also be added to the list , despite the fact that the their clubs will not release them unless they are in FIFA Day duties and for a maximum of 3 days.

 

Players invited are as follows:
Esteghlal : Omid Ebrahimi, Yaghoub Karimi, Khosro Heydari, Mohsen Frouzan , Ando Teymourian . Amirhossein Sadeghi , Hashim Beikzadeh (7)

Sepahan: MohammadReza Khalatbary, Rahman Ahmadi, Mehdi Sharifi, Shoja’a Khalilzadeh (4)

Foolad Khuzestan : Sourosh Rafei , Mehrdad jama’ati , Ahmad Abdullahzadeh (3)

Naft Tehran: Alireza Birnavand , Pouraliganji.(2)

Persepolis : Sousha Makani , Reza Haghighi , (Payam Sadeghaian & Hossein Mahini conditional to Military Service)  (2+2)

Tractorsazi: Ahamad Ale Nemeh (1)
Zob Ahan: Ghassim Haddadifar (1)

 

Team Melli will be setting camp in Portugal around 10th October. According to the FFIRI , there will be playing 3 friendly games with yet to be confirmed teams. The camp is the first stage of preparation for the AFC Asian Cup 2015 Australia. Iran group rivals have started preparation 3 months ago conducting training camps and playing friendly matches.

Deputy Minister “It is better not to participate in the Olympic Qualifiers with this team”

Deputy Minister for Youth and Sport said that the sports federations whose results were well below expectation are themselves accountable for their performances in the Asian Games. Nasrollah Sajjadi, speaking on a TV show on Friday , earmarked the FFIRI for special mention criticizing the poor performance of the football team. “If this is all what the footballers can offer, then I see no point of this team competing in the preliminaries of the Rio Olympic Games. “

“Other countries reap the awards of their hard work. The football federation is solely responsible for this team and it is obvious that this team was not prepared well.  Being third in a 3 team group is not exactly a matter of bad luck either.”

Iran’s u-23 team was eliminated from the group stages of the Asian Games for the first time in decades after losing to Vietnam 4-1 and drawing with Kyrgyzstan. None of these two teams in Iran’s group made it beyond the next round, which magnifies the ghastly performance by the U-23 team coached by Nelo Vingada.

Kaffashian ” I will be honored to be ousted from my position!”

Ali Kaffashian has stated that it is an honor to be ousted from his position as the President of the FFIRI by the General Assembly!

The comment by Kaffashian was in response to Amir Abedini who has started a move to dislodge Kaffashian from his position citing amongst various issues, the poor management and administration of the federation, poor planning and lack of strategic outlook  , bad results by National football Teams representing the country.

“I welcome such a move, in fact , I will even show them how to do it (…) It needs 15 representatives to declare the no-confidence vote and if that quota is reached , then it will be my honor to be removed”.

Commenting on the results of youth teams, Kaffashian claimed that “Iran teams have not played so badly in the recent tournaments. We are not after results, in any case. Admittedly, the other Asian Teams have worked quite hard.”

Kaffashian reiterated the admission of committing a mistake in the arrangement of Iran’s U23 squad to Asian Games. “Originally we planned to send the U21 team to Incheon, but due to a last minute decision change, we added a few older players. This has disrupted the team rhythm”

“We are supposed to upkeep this U21 team and prepare it for the Olympics qualifiers. If we wanted to send this team to Incheon, where most of the opponents are sending their full strength teams, it would  have been an unfair competition (…) !”

“Our aim is to keep Vingada until the Olympics. God willing, we will arrange a few friendly games to assess his work with the squad. After the analysis and review of those games, we will decide on our future relationship with Vingada.”

Kaffashian confirmed that Team Melli players, who have been suspended by the authorities for holding fake Military Service Release Certificates, will not be invited to Team Melli. The Head of FFIRI also confirmed that he will not interfere with Queiroz selection or lack of in regards to Aghili and Rahmati.

Ali Kaffashian is known for his contentious and controversial statements. Some amount of tongue-in-cheek is usually attached to his statements to add fun , according to his justification. However, he is going beyond the border of professionalism and authenticity by these latest statements. Not only is he covering the trues facts of the events, he is making a mockery of his position by sheer lack of knowledge or deceitful whatever the case might be.

 No team is allowed to field more than 3 over-aged players in the Asian Games that has an age restriction of U23. Kaffashian’s statement that the other teams are fielding their full strength team is quite misleading. The last minute change of mind of the federation which led to replacing 7 players, was enforced by the Iranian Olympic Committees (IOC) policy that mandates teams/athletes representing  Iran in Asian and Olympic Games must stand a chance of winning a medal. The Asian and the Olympic Games have never been a trial fields for athletes as Kaffashian is suggesting.

The Irony of all this is that Kaffashian , being an ex-executive of IOC , should have known this fact!

Kaffashian’s statement that he will be honored to be dislodged from his position is as zany as they come!  Who, in his right mind, will be honored to be kicked out of his job?

 In hindsight, it will be an honor for all Iranian fans if he is actually removed or replaced but given a decent farewell party and a thank you for a job that was not very well done. Someone else, less talkative more industrious, a strong leader, knowledgeable decision-making, a veteran in sports administration should be given the opportunity to turn the fortunes of football in Iran.